If you go onto the Humax web site you'll find manager's specials which are reconditioned freesat boxes and nearly half price. They still have a 12 month warranty. I bought one recently and it's like new.

I've also got You View free with a Talk Talk bundle but I prefer the Freesat, I think the picture is better and the You View seems a bit clumpy and slow.

we had to ditch sky when we moved house 18 months back. Cant get line of sight with dish.

so picked up a Humax Fox HDR from the humax managers specials as whatmess mentions above. it was brand new really.

never looked back!

its not a youview box, but does do all freeview. i.e. you can watch tv channels, but it doesn't have the option to auto view programmes you have missed via the planner.
instead you only have iplayer on a separate menu.

i did also compare the price of monthly payment via BT, but it worked out much cheaper to buy up front and have the simple box i now have. Even my 5 yr old can use it to record and watch stuff he has recorded (he is proud of his own folder with 42 shaun the sheep in it)

get one via the humax site, but get one that uses your current sat dish rather than the aerial version.

Yep, Humax Direct are great to deal with, we got from them a 500gb Freeview Humax PVR £79 bargain works a treat, and gives us Dave and Drama which you don't get on a Freesat.

Of course we also have a Freesat Humax Foxsat 320gb HD PVR which we use in the dining room, but also comes camping with us.

What you have to watch out for with Freeview is that most local Transmitters only carry the basic 20 TV channels, whilst the higher power regional Transmitters carry around 90 channels.

You just need to find out which terrestrial Transmitter you are getting a signal from, for us it was just a case of having the TV aerial rotated, from Haslingden local transmitter to Winter Hill regional transmitter in order to get the full channel line up.

Quote: Originally posted by Francais on 31/1/2014
What you have to watch out for with Freeview is that most local Transmitters only carry the basic 20 TV channels, whilst the higher power regional Transmitters carry around 90 channels.

thats interesting...so does that mean there is also a difference to what you get down an aerial than what you get via dish.

it might also explain why i cant get some channels, yet they are listed as being there on the program guide.

Yep, and something needs to be done about that as TV Licence payers are discriminated by there location, we were lucky enough to be able to pick up a Regional Terrestrial signal and get the full Freeview line up.

Some folk can only ever get a local Terrestrial signal so are limited to the basic number of channels, I would argue that folk in such a situation should be paying a reduced TV licence if it can be proved that they can not receive the full channel line up using a std aerial.

Of course the powers that be would argue that you can use Freesat but I would counter that by saying in that case all Freeview channels should be carried on Freesat which they are not.

BT Broadband with their youview box so that you get all the catch up iPlayer 4OD etc etc services - fibre broadband which gives you a better speed especially for watching the footie. BT has all the Champions League soon so you won't get those elsewhere. Live premier league matches every saturday and often during the week, Then there is the football.

That's all well and good Phil, but there are still a lot of TV homes that do not have BroadBand let alone Fiber Optic connection.

In fact a report on Radio 4 yesterday, highlighted the fact that 46% of School children have no internet at home, which certainly did surprise me as many kids get given a Password and Login for doing homework.

The figure came about, when teachers were concerned how many kids were not logging in, some of the interviews with the parents of said kids were quite worrying.

I think there was a scheme for hard up parents to get free laptops for there kids to use, but I think that scheme got abused, although what use is a laptop without internet at home, if you need to login etc.

My Talk Talk package costs me £10 a month at the moment which includes 24/7 phone calls to landlines and the free numbers (not the line rental, which I pay for annually and is cheaper than BT), broadband and You View. The router and You View boxes are free. I think it's an 18 month contract and goes up to £15 after 12 months. They're always having offers so worth checking their web site. My cousin rang them just after I took out this contract and got it down to £5 a month - she was already with them, though.

Well! After all this deliberation and research Sky rang my DH yesterday and we are staying with them for another 12 months

They just made an offer we couldn't refuse. Same package we are on but without HD for less than half of what we were paying.

So down from £74 per month to £35. This was part of our retirement plan but as that isn't until late next year and we are both still working full time we will keep them on for a bit longer and DH gets to keep his sky sport and S4C

But thanks to you guys we wont have to do any research as we know which way we are going.

Late to the party on this one. I know the decision has been deferred but another user view might be interesting.

We're on a new estate, not cabled. So choice is BT, or a third party using BT's infrastructure.

We went with BT, fibre Infinity 2. Great.

Aged Sony HDR packs up, so I ring BT and get a free (after shipping) YouView box (Humax t1000) for £5pm. At the time would have been a £250 box, so I'd be in front for 50 months, and will doubtless be looking for a replacement well before then.

Has all the UK catch-up players, records, pauses play etc, HD, outputs 5.1 DD from suitable material, access to on demand, some free, some PPV. Love it.

My old Sony was clunky in comparison, and whilst the TV itself is a good HD panel, we always watch via the YV box.

Some users report issues. I think of it as more of a computer than my old HDR. Like a PC, it can throw a wobbly, usually fixed with a turn off/on. I personally would avoid the eBay route, and buy a refurb with warranty from Humax, if I was buying on a budget.

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